Dirty John: Terra
LOS ANGELES - John Meehan bragged frequently about his supposed ties to organized crime, and claimed to trace his bloodline to the prolific East Coast hit man who had run Murder Inc. itself. In a life laden with lies, nothing he said could be believed.
What is believable is that he approved of the mob's way of doing business, particularly when it came to dealing with enemies. The ethos was simple. A dead enemy couldn't suffer, so you went after their loved ones. You went after their families.
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Terra Newell was 25. Everyone described her as "sweet." Her voice, a soft singsong, forced people to lean in. As a kid, the smallest on the team, she was so uncompetitive in softball games that she didn't bother swinging at pitches.
Terra was a child of the upscale Orange County suburbs but adored country music, and she liked the songs about drinking beer, having a good time and loving God. It had started with a high school crush on a boy from Oklahoma, in the same way her current obsession with "The Walking Dead" had started with her ex-boyfriend Jimmy.
Like the company of dogs, music made her forget her anxiety. For years, Terra had lived with a vague sense of dread. When she was around 6, she woke up screaming, believing that someone had climbed through her bedroom window to snatch her. Her parents didn't call police.
Her mother thought maybe it was a dream, the function of Terra's distress over
